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Wilma Elizabeth Lura Oral History
Publication date: 31 July 2024
File metadata
Dublin Core Metadata
title:
Wilma Elizabeth Lura Oral History
creator:
Lura, Wilma Elizabeth (Bernhard) (1915 November 1 - )
subject:
American Red Cross
description:
Wilma Elizabeth Lura (formerly Bernhard) was born on November 1, 1915 in Yonkers, New York. She graduated from the New York School of Social Work and was living and working in New York City when she decided to take part in the war effort after reading an article by war correspondent Ernie Pyle. She applied for service in the American Red Cross and reported to Washington, DC for training to be sent overseas. In January 1944, she was shipped out to England as the Assistant Field Director with two other Red Cross workers on a troop ship. The three women went by train to Cornwall, England and set up and ran the recreation tent at the Army’s 8th Field Hospital. They were there until October 1944, when they were ordered to report to Paris, France. This was the first she had seen of post-invasion France. In the early stages of this trip, they lived in tents with the Army nurses with rationed water to bathe with. Later, they traveled by train to finish their trip to the American Hospital in Paris. The three women set up and ran recreation services and events for Army personnel. It was also their first time since coming overseas that they didn’t have to stay in tents, living in quarters near the hospital. While in Paris, she met and courted an Army major, and they married in Paris in August 1945. She wore a wedding dress made of parachute silk her husband acquired and took place at the American Cathedral. She finished her service with the Red Cross and returned to the United States in September 1945, her husband returned soon after, and they had three children together. No transcript of this interview is currently available.
publisher:
Military Women's Memorial Foundation
contributor:
Fee, Robbie
date:
2011-11-04
type:
Moving Image
format:
MiniDV
identifier:
1204.01; 2011.1204
source:
CLIR - Recordings at Risk
language:
English
relation:
635498
coverage:
World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-45
rights:
Unrestricted